Follow Me

Are you following Christ as He commanded?

Presented by Richard Thompson
Cincinnati, Ohio - December 27, 2008 (59 minutes)

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Sermon Transcript

A few years ago I was speaking with one of the men in my congregations. He's a grandfather, and he said to me that he and his grandson were taking a walk one afternoon. In this walk they came to an area that was a little bit soft; and so, the granddad turned to his grandson and said, "OK, now make sure that you walk carefully through here so that your shoes don't get stuck." And so, the grandfather began to walk across this soft area; and he heard this little voice behind him say, "I am going to put my feet right on top of where you put yours." Well, the grandfather was taken aback in a couple of ways. First of all, he realized that his grandson was going to watch him every step of the way; and, secondly, he realized that his steps were too far apart for him to be able to put his little stride in his grandfather's long stride. So he shortened his stride so that his grandson could keep up. Well, his grandson followed exactly where his granddad led him.

I'd like to talk with you this afternoon about a command that I think applies to you and me today as much as it did to some individuals 2,000 years ago, and that was Jesus Christ's command to "Follow Me." "Follow Me" is a very important command. It's one that I think we need to be reminded of. For example, the current world events, the current economic situation that we face now is rather turbulent. In speaking just since I've been here the last couple of days, I have spoken with several individuals; and, honestly, it appears as though many in God's church have a difficult time. It is as if their life is like a nightmare-go-round. It's not a merry-go-round; it's a nightmare-go-around.

When you're in turbulent times, when you're being jerked hither, thither, every which way that you want to say, how is it that you keep yourself stable? When you're in an airplane, if you happen to be the pilot and you're getting tossed all over the place, one of the advices that has been passed down is, keep your eye on the horizon. Don't take your eye off of it. I think that in turbulent times, the times that many of us face, we need to make sure that we keep our eyes on the Person who has told us to follow Him, Jesus Christ.

We can simplify very much—and I appreciated what David West was saying in his song, that it's the simple things. Life can be simplified in very complicated times by doing the simple things that we know we should do. And that is, to follow Jesus Christ, following that command that you have responded to, to one degree or another.

In John 6 and verse 44, we know that Jesus said to all of us that no man can come unto Him "except the Father who has sent Me draws him," so as a foundation upon which we're going to build the sermon today, that is a given, that everyone in here has been called of the Father. Now, what the response to Jesus Christ is going to be as we have been brought to Jesus Christ for Him to lead us, is up to you and me. What we do from this point forward is determined by what we want to do, what we really want to do. Do we really want to follow Jesus Christ? You can read this particular statement again a little bit later, but I'd like to get into the heart of the sermon and begin to discuss what it means to "Follow Me," what it means when Jesus gives us that particular command.

Let's turn to Matthew, chapter 4, and we will read just verses 21 and 22. Specific, very short statement, very important event here in Matthew 4 and verse 21:

Matt. 4:21-22 – And going on from there, He saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. So Jesus called out to them, and they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him.

This was an instance of where many who respond to the "Follow Me" command of Jesus Christ separate themselves from their family, from their jobs, from whatever it might be that a person had been, let's say, engaged in. And sometimes when we come into God's church and we say that we want to follow Jesus Christ, we have to ask ourselves, are we willing to be separate from those things which we have grown up with? Are we willing to become separate in order to follow Jesus Christ in the way that He intends for us to do? Many of you grew up and you attended services, and many of you are here this afternoon because your parents are baptized members of God's church. You did not come into the church in the way that many of us in here also came in, and that is, out of the world, out of jobs, out of professions, out of futures, because when you respond to the "Follow Me" command, you separate yourself sometimes from your planned future; and your planned future, that which you anticipated, perhaps that which you planned to go into, maybe has to change. So, not only are you separating yourself from the immediate, you're sometimes separating yourself from what you planned to do. But that separation, if you follow Jesus Christ absolutely the way He said to, is going to be a great wonderful blessing.

You can look up and you can see this in a couple of different places that the word "follow" comes from a Greek word akoloutheo, and it means, "To follow one who precedes." It means, "To join him as his attendant; to accompany him." It means, "To join as a disciple; to become or be his disciple." Jesus Christ is the only leader I know of—and, by the way, He is the greatest leader that has ever been on earth. By far and away, He is the greatest. Whatever it is that He separates you from, He has something better for you to gain. Whatever it is that you left behind, there is something better that He is going to offer, whether it's immediate or whether it's in the future or whether it's ultimately the Kingdom of God; but in this life, as well as in the life in the Kingdom of God, to separate yourself from those things which you know you should not be doing, and even sometimes separate yourself from your own family in order to keep God's way of life, Jesus Christ is always going to give you something better, something more rewarding, and something more rich.

Many of you, when you came into God's church a few years ago, you realized that maybe your family was split; and some people decided in your family that they wanted to go one way and other members of your family decided that they would go another way. Which way did you choose? You chose to follow Christ. In some cases, families were, unfortunately, torn apart as a result of things that caused a separation; and some of you had to ask yourself, "When I'm going to follow Christ, to what degree am I willing to commit myself to it?"

Matthew, chapter 19, and beginning in verse 27:

Matt. 19:27-28 – Then answered Peter and said unto him, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed You; what shall we have therefore?" When Peter committed himself into Jesus Christ's guidance and leadership and gave his life into Jesus Christ's hands, it was a commitment and a conviction. His commitment was going to be challenged, as we know. When we say that we're going to follow Jesus Christ, Jesus knows that we can follow Him so far, and then there are going to be some tests and some trials . And Jesus said unto them, "Verily I say unto you..." and notice what He promised the apostles... "that you which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Did Jesus Christ tell the disciples, "This is what you will be given if you follow Me"? No, He didn't. That came later. After they had agreed that they would follow Him, then He begins to add on the blessings that they were probably unaware were going to be offered to them. That's how life...when you separate yourself from either those things that are wrong or, perhaps, those things that your family goes another way, perhaps the kind of work that you were in, you had to abandon and pursue a different way as a result of a job that you couldn't participate in...So when we begin to think about following Jesus Christ, we grow to respect our family, we love our family from whom we have been separated; but it's a heartbreaking thing when those who have been reared in God's church, those who have known God's truth, are torn because of false doctrine, because of errors that others are teaching, and you see people going the wrong way. Once again, in turbulent times, go back to the basics. Keep your mind on the horizon. Keep your eyes set there. Jesus Christ, the greatest leader who ever lived, is the only leader I know of who can lead you and keep His eyes on you continually, because when you falter, and perhaps when you need Him to slow down a little bit, He'll slow down so that you can keep up.

In Matthew, chapter 9, Jesus Christ, when He gave the command, "Follow Me," He was calling people to Himself. The Father had sent the disciples to Him, and now it was Jesus' responsibility to make certain choices among His disciples. But one of the things that we read...and let's just pick up one point here in Matthew, chapter 9, regarding Matthew.

Matt. 9:9 – And as Jesus passed forth from there, He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, "Follow Me." And he arose, and followed him.

Jesus, when He gives the command, "Follow Me," gives a characteristic that He and the Father always have had; and that is, They are gatherers. They gather individuals to Themselves. They bring people to Themselves. To "Follow Me" is not simply to keep distance from the Leader because the Leader wants to take us up in His arms. We heard a beautiful song a moment ago about that, about how we're in His arms and we're in His hands; and that is how we are following Him. When we think about the man Matthew here, Matthew was a man who was a tax collector. He was given that job by the Roman emperor. He was given that job which was a permanent job. He would never be removed from being a tax collector as long as he chose to have that job. However, if he ever chose to leave being a tax collector, he could never have that job back. When Matthew got up that day and responded to the "Follow Me" command, he realized that he was now going to be connected to another emperor, to another king, to another individual to whom he was going to cause his life to be devoted. So he was not going to be a part of a kingdom of men that gave him his job on earth. He wanted to be a part of a kingdom that Jesus Christ was going to bring. And so, we have in—let's go to Romans, chapter 6 —we have here, I think Paul does it very, very well, that when each of us individually begins to respond to that "Follow Me" command, God and Jesus Christ are asking us to come to Them. And notice the direction that happens in Romans, chapter 6, in verse 4. We're talking here about baptism in the first few verses. Down in verse 4, it talks about:

Rom. 6:4-6 – ...even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

But I want you to note the direction that is now supposed to happen to a person's life. The old man dies in a watery grave. We'll just hit a few of the verses here in the remainder of Romans, chapter 6, but I want you to note the direction that we are to go.

Rom. 6:10 – For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives, what? unto God.

In verse 11, it says: ... but alive unto God...

Down in verse 13, ... but yield yourselves unto God... and the last phrase there, as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Now, you get the point as well in verse 16 where another very important element is added. At the end of verse 16, it says you are of obedience unto righteousness...

There is a specific direction. It is toward God, toward the righteousness of God; and so, the same thing is said in verse 19: ... to righteousness unto holiness...

In verse 22: But now being made free from sin, and become servants, what? to God, you have your fruit unto holiness...

There is a change of direction that must be made, and that direction leads us to the third point. So God, when we follow the command to "Follow Me," we are separated from our family, and we're also separated from this world and its ways. We are now following Jesus Christ, who brings us to Himself. But thirdly, there is also another aspect of obedience to God in following the command that Jesus gave, and that's given in Matthew, chapter 16, verses 24-28.

Matt. 16:24 – Then said Jesus unto His disciples, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

So there is the self-denial that is an essential part of the "Follow Me" command. That means the introspection that is needed by us to make sure that if there is any part of us that is, let's say, not according to what God said to do...there are a lot of people in the world today that are trying to make a name for themselves. I saw a brief thing the other night on television. It was about people who had become very, very famous very quickly; and they had several individuals who were sort of the starlets of the people who had a lot of exposure. In this particular case, they were entertainers. And then they went through what happened to them when they reached a certain peak, because what they're trying to do is gain a name for themselves.

Let me ask you this: What good does it do to you to try to make a name for yourself? Do you want to make a name for yourself? Now, we know that the day of a man's death is better than the day of a man's birth, so I'm not saying that you can go out and make a lousy name for yourself. What I'm saying is, what motivates you? Do you want to be known? Do you want to be important? Do you want to be somebody? When in a few years, I read in the Bible where God says He's going to give us a new name, so do you know what's going to happen to the name you build for yourself? It's temporary, because God doesn't intend that you keep that name. You honor God and you deny self, and God will give you an eternal name. Which name do you want? What kind of a name will you have?

If you followed Jesus Christ in His ministry, what did He do? He spent His entire ministry making a good name for His Father, didn't He? You bet He did! What did He come for? He came to do His Father's will. It was His meat. It was everything He lived for. He denied Himself in even leaving the Godhead, didn't He? So, then, individuals who do not deny themselves and they want to make a name for themselves, they want to be important—that's going to be very short-lived, because those who make names for themselves are living in a very temporary world. And that temporary world is going to come crashing down.

We live our lives, as Paul said, unto God, unto righteousness, unto holiness; and, as Mr. Winner, thankfully, said, we give God the credit for this weekend. Anybody who has ever done anything like this, anybody who has ever been a Feast coordinator, anybody who has ever organized a gathering of God's people, you know, and you know that you know, that God's the one who blesses it. You can organize everything that you want to, but it is those who follow God's way and keep men's laws, they're the ones who make it happy; and thank God for making this a great weekend so far.

Matthew, then, chapter 16, and verse 25:

Matt. 16:25-27 – "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." So Jesus Christ, as we turn our life into His hands, He says this very clearly, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works."

And if those works are directed toward God, if those works are going to give God the credit for when success happens, then that person will have a good name that God is creating in Him. We want God to create His good name in us. That comes only through self-denial. When we respond to "Follow Me," that "Follow Me" is that we, as Jesus says here, "If any man will come to Me, let him deny himself and his ways and his ideas and his values, whatever, take up his cross and follow Me."

Verse 28 – "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom."

And, of course, that happened to a few in Matthew 17 when they saw the transfiguration.

Let's go to another point in Matthew, chapter 19, because there is something else that we need to do as far as coming into the command and obeying the command to "Follow Me":

Matt. 19:16-19 – And, behold, one came and said unto Him, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may inherit or have eternal life?" And He said unto him, "Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if you will enter into life, keep the commandments." He said unto him, "Which?" Jesus said, "You shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother: and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

So, that's the ten commandments, heart and core.

Verses 20-21 – The young man said unto Him, "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" Jesus said unto him, "If you will be perfect, or whole, if you will be complete , go and sell that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me."

Now, in Mark's account, what Mark says of this young man is this: Mark records that Jesus loved this young man. The other accounts do not give that. Mark's account does. It shows that Jesus had a fondness for this young man who came to Him. He was a sincere man. He came to Jesus and he wanted to be—at least he thought he wanted to be—a part of God's kingdom. But when Jesus said that you have to deny certain things that you value now and follow Him, (verse 22) the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

Here, then, you have an instance of where a change of values was not going to be a part of this young man's life. That's another aspect of what we need to do if we follow that command of "Follow Me," and that is, a change of values. Now, if you've been reared in the church, there is a portion of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that you have been reared in. You've been reared in God's church and you've been taught right principles. You've been taught the necessity of keeping the ten commandments, and you're here this afternoon. You're keeping the day that God has set aside as the day of worship that He created at the very beginning. This is one thing that the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ, did. So you can have certain values, good values; but also, there's the other side of the human being in which there are certain things, certain ideas, there are certain qualities of human nature that we have to fight against.

We can look at the carnal mind...and each of us in here, to one degree or another, has a carnal mind. It doesn't go away at baptism. It's still there. And that's what was a frustration to the apostle Paul to a great degree. He went through all these things, and he said, "Oh my, what I want to do, I don't do it; and what I don't want to do, that is what I do." And so, there is this continual battle of what value there is of the carnal mind fighting against the values of Jesus Christ and God's Holy Spirit. So you have this battle that is going on.

In the book of Acts, specifically in Acts, chapter 26—I won't turn there but just sort of refer to it—Paul goes through a set of values that he once had. He thought that he was doing the right thing as Saul when he would go in and have God's people taken out, and some he had put to death. You read that particular account...well, let's turn there. I want to point this one specifically out, so let's do go ahead and turn there. Acts, chapter 26, and verse 16. Paul was not an individual that you wanted to run across because he valued his own ideas of what he thought God wanted him to do. And this is where he was in great error. In Acts, chapter 26, let's just skip down to verse 11.

Acts 26:11 – And I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme...

Let me ask you something. What kind of a person is it who says he's doing God a favor, who would compel an individual to blaspheme? He would have God's people dragged out of their homes, perhaps a brother or sister who later on would be a member of God's church and find out that the apostle Paul had been deeply converted; and yet here was a man, I honestly have to say, this guy was truly mean spirited. How did he get somebody to blaspheme? What do you do to somebody to cause them to do that? What kind of a mindset did Saul have at that time? Well, it took about three years for Jesus Christ to undo it. I was kidding yesterday in one of the seminars, I wonder sometimes in that three years that he spent with Jesus whether Jesus gave him a ten minute break every once in awhile. What does it take for someone...and look, you have to value causing somebody to blaspheme. That has to be a very vital part of what compels you to do what you do. You are absolutely convicted that this is the right thing to do. And it goes on and says:

Continuing verse 11 – ...and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

In other words, he was just after anybody who was a follower of Jesus Christ. Brethren, if there are any values that you have that Jesus Christ knows you should not, what He will do is to go in there after them. If there is anything, because, look, He bought us all. He bought everybody in here. If you're baptized, you have God's Holy Spirit...we all know this, that Jesus Christ of Nazareth owns us—lock, stock and barrel. He owns that portion that is good, but He owns that portion which is bad. It belongs to Him, and He's going to do with it what He knows needs to be done. Therefore, if there are values that we have that are selfish, if there are values that we have that are wrong, if there are practices that we do that are incorrect and against God's law, one way or the other, Jesus Christ is going to be able to lead us {away from them}; but we've got to be continually led by Him...and always remember, try to stay as close to Him as you can.

There are some older people in here...and probably when you were younger, you could just roar around and do a lot of different things; and so, you think that, well, Jesus Christ, He really led me through this and led me through that. He led me through a number of things, and...you know what, though? When you get older and you can't do quite as much, you can still pray, can't you? That's a value that perhaps you attain. Maybe prayer was not as valuable to you as a young person because you were too busy doing.

A number of years ago, it came to me, it just hit me all of a sudden, and I used to ask myself, and, by the way, I still do, "Hey, Dick, are you as converted as you are busy?" Because, you know what? They're not always the same thing. They're not always the same. It's a matter of what do you value, what do you want? There are some people in here, some are high strung, some are low strung, some aren't strung at all! So there are different personalities, are there not? I have a couple of good friends whose names I will not relate at this particular time, who are very high-strung people. At this very moment, I guarantee you they're not sitting still in their seats. They can't sit still. They're always moving and always doing. Thankfully, they're both converted. But every once in awhile, you can become so busy that you neglect the important things. And you value doing more than you do the heart issues. You can be so busy that you neglect the issues of the heart. We never want to do that. We have got to value what Jesus Christ has given us to do at heart-issue level, and keep it there.

Speaking of values, a few weeks ago when all the economic things began to really collapse—first it was Fannie Mae, and then it was Freddie Mac, and then it was AIG, and then we had this man Bernard Madoff who absconded and wasted, did whatever he did in a ponzi scheme, $50 billion, to the point where many worthwhile charities and foundations as well as private individuals, in being interviewed, some of them said, "I lost everything." Now, I want to take you back to what Peter said to Jesus in the previous scripture you just read. What did Peter say to Jesus? "We have forsaken all to follow You. We have given up everything." That is a choice Peter and the other apostles made; and their values, their stock went way up.

I really don't think that Jesus and God the Father bought stock in AIG. They were smart enough to know not to, weren't they? Where is Their stock? What is it They value? What is it you have that is of greater value than all that has ever been lost or ever will be lost or ever was on the stock market? You have the value of Jesus Christ's life being given for you. That and...God the Father values you because of the effort and because of what He has entrusted for us to take and to use. You are by far the most valuable people on earth today because God has stock in you. God has stock in all of us, and it is something He is not going to allow to go down. The stock value of God's people is always on the increase, always. It never, never goes down. And so, when you look to your value system and you ask, "What is it that I really want from my life," tell God to please, see that Jesus Christ in you, which we have as a result of God's Holy Spirit, will always increase.

Let's go back to Matthew again, Matthew, chapter 4, and we'll read verses 18-19. We'll pick it up a little bit earlier than where we did a few moments ago:

Matt. 4:18-19 – And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. So here were commercial fishermen, and He said unto them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

There's a very important aspect of obeying that command to follow Jesus Christ; and that is, if you follow Him, it is going to be a commitment to service. It is a commitment to service in the utmost. Let's go to Mark's account, Mark, chapter 10. There's a slightly different statement here in Mark's account.

Mark 10:35-41 – And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto Him, saying, "Master, we would that You should do for us whatsoever we shall desire." So here they had their own idea of what it was to serve Christ. They thought, obviously, that Christ was going to set His kingdom up, perhaps at that time. And they were hoping that they would have a very responsible job in that kingdom. And He said unto them, "What would you that I should do for you?" They said unto him, "Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Your right hand, and the other on Your left hand, in Your glory." But Jesus said unto them, "You know not what you ask: can you drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" And they said unto Him, "We can." Well, they thought so. Without God's help, of course, they could not. And Jesus said unto them, "You shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall you be baptized... in other words, you are going to go through some rough times. But to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared." And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John.

You know, I like this section of scripture because it's like the other ten didn't want the same thing. Yeah, right! It's just that James and John, with the help of their Mom, if you read the other accounts—I mean, she just wanted James and John to be a couple of the head guys in the kingdom, and so she was a little bit of an instigator here. Well, James and John, they were the ones who took the heat; but it is not that the other ten did not also have that problem. We know of that because three different times it came up, who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. But here's the point, that when they followed Him, they had an idea of what the kingdom was like, and they had an idea of what was necessary in order for them to be a part of that kingdom.

Mark 10:42-43 – But Jesus called them to Him, and said unto them, "You know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister," or shall be your servant. And so, service is a very important aspect of the willingness of a person to continue in the command to "Follow Me."

Serving sometimes can really drain an individual. There are times when you work and you serve and you help and sometimes you might ask yourself, "Is this worth it?" If it is done to help God's people, if it is done to help God's church, if it is done not selfishly to bring attention to one's self, God doesn't forget one thing that you have done. Here not long ago, I received an e-mail about an individual who was such a great deacon out in the southern California area, that when he moved away...he was a deacon out there somewhere like 25 years, and he showed me the plaque one afternoon I was visiting with him. I remember reading it, that they really did appreciate all that he was able to do. The sad thing was that as he grew older, his eyesight, his hearing began to fail, and I told him one day, I said, "A lot of people in this congregation now do not know your dedication and service," and I asked him, I said, "Do you think God has forgotten about it?" He laughed and he said, "No." I said, "Well, there are individuals who also know the kind of person that you were. They know the sense of dedication that you provided; and when Jesus Christ comes back, there's no way that He is going to forget the acts of service that you did for God's church for so many different years." And so, sometimes, as you become older, and many of us here are older...I don't consider myself older anymore because your perspective changes through the years. However...the gray hair that I have is probably more a matter of the light than anything else that you see. Seriously, there are some of you here, you just can't do it the way you used to, can you? Don't feel guilty or don't feel badly, because there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus Christ at His right hand.

Have you ever thought of the anxiousness that Jesus Christ has of wanting to come back here and give eternal life to all of those who have served Him so well through the years? I think that there is a much greater anticipation of the rewards that Jesus Christ will bring with Him than we could ever anticipate and hope for ourselves. We hope for the Kingdom of God, don't we? I do not think that we hope for the Kingdom of God as much as God the Father and Jesus Christ. I think that both are so anxious to come down and bring the worthy rewards for the works that God's people have done. I think that sometimes, maybe, they sit on the edge of the throne and say, "I'll be glad when We can go down there and give these good people what We know they ought to have." I think that there's an anticipation, that there's a reward coming to those whose service is other-minded, is not to make a name for themselves but to simply serve the people of God.

Let's go to John, chapter 12, and verse 26, because here we have another aspect of what God has for us, as far as following the command to "Follow Me."

John 12:26 – "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor." So we just talked about that and it leads directly into this next point, and that is this—let's look down in verses 35-36: Then Jesus said unto them, "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walks in darkness knows not where he goes. While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light." We're to be the children of light. We are to be the pure imitation of Jesus Christ. That's something that you and I have as a part of that "Follow Me" command, that we are to become the absolute express image and the children of light. We are to be like Jesus Christ is in character. And just as He said here, as long as He was there, He says, "When you have light, believe in it, and don't let yourself be clouded in darkness." But it says that He challenged them to be children of light. Continuing verse 36, These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them.

So we have the admonition and the encouragement that Christ gives here. Let's go to Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 1-2. There needs to be and is in the process of being done a literal change of an individual who is human, who is having his or her heart written on by the hand of God, the ways of God. That's the permanent character that we choose, that we want to have, that we say, "Jesus Christ was this way, and this is the way I want to be." As you follow Christ, how do you know you are? We know that we follow Him by following His words, by what He spoke. Because we know that what Jesus spoke, He lived. What Jesus Christ spoke and lived, He received from the Father. So if we speak, if we live according to the way that Jesus Christ did, then we are going to be created in His image.

Heb. 12:1-2 – Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author... and what is Jesus? He is the author or He is the beginner and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

But it is Jesus Christ who is completing the greatest creation, and that is the creation of the sons and daughters of light, sons and daughters of God the Father, to be in the Kingdom of God.

In I Peter 2 there is a very good explanation here that Peter gives of what this particular point is about literally becoming like Christ is in character. I Peter 2 and verse 20:

I Peter 2:20-21 – For what glory is it, if, when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were you called... So God the Father called you. He asked you, "What are you going to do with this call?" And that call involved a statement, or at least an action in some way or another to follow Jesus Christ, and you accepted that... because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.

Now, this particular word "example" is an interesting word. It comes from the word hupogrammos, and it means "a model or pattern to be copied in writing or drawing." And so, the study of God's word is essential, isn't it, if we really want to be the one that is a duplicate, so to speak, in character. Here's the thing about God's way of creating in us perfect character: the perfect character that God is able to create in us is because we choose the right way, because we love the right way, because we embrace the right way. It is something that we cherish; it is something that is absolutely dear to us, and we really do want to do the right thing. When God sees that, He is going to write His character on our heart. We're the ones who have to initiate, but God the Father is the one who makes sure that we're just like His Son. Jesus Christ is the one who works with us.

Did anybody ever ask you the question, who is the best minister you have ever had? There is only one right answer to that. And that is, Jesus Christ. His ministry now is much more active than He was able to do when He was on earth because what He is doing now is He is completing that faith in people on earth through the power of the Spirit as we yield to Him; and we are to become the model, the pattern that is being copied in writing and drawing, as the word {"follow"} is used here. Peter certainly did understand this very much so.

I really wonder, when Peter wrote this, it says, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps... Peter, you know, thought He could follow in Jesus Christ's steps, didn't he? Do you remember that moment when Peter was standing outside and Jesus was inside and He was being questioned and tormented by those who had arrested Him; and Jesus had told him, He said, "Peter, before this night is out, you're going to deny Me three times before the cock crows twice." And if you'll remember, after the cock crowed the second time, Peter had denied Jesus three times, and you read in John where Christ looked upon Peter. And that is when Peter really did know, "I'm not what I thought I was." Every one of us in here comes to the point where we have to realize we're not either "what I thought I was," and certainly we're "not what I want to be," and that is, "I really do want Christ to not give up on writing a letter on my heart," and it is a description of the character of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

That is something...honestly, brethren, if you are ever bored in this church, you have got a serious spiritual problem, because when God works with you, that is the most exciting thing that there is. The greatest creation that God is ever doing doesn't have anything to do with how extensive the universe is. It has to do with the creation of perfect character in the disciples of Jesus Christ. That's the thing that's most exciting to Him. That's the thing that excites Him; and if we yield ourselves into His hand, it excites us, doesn't it?

Let's go to John, chapter 21. John adds another element of when we follow Christ. Are we perfect? Do we sometimes get down in the dumps? I dare say all of us do. There are times when life can hit us in ways that we never thought possible; but in John 21, I referenced this earlier, which leads into where we want to go now. This next area is that when you respond to the command to "Follow Me," there is the aspect of sacrifice that is so important. John, chapter 21, beginning in verse 15:

John 21:15-19 – So when they had dined ...this is after, of course, Jesus' resurrection and He was with the disciples... Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me more than these?" He said unto Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said unto him, "Feed My lambs." He said to him again the second time, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" He said unto Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said unto him, "Feed My sheep." He said unto him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said unto him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." And you have gone through this, more often than not, several times; and you know the difference in the word Jesus used for "love," which is agape, a spiritual love, and the word Peter was responding with was the word philia, brotherly love. And so, Jesus said unto him, "Feed My sheep." But Peter was upset by that. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, when you were young, you girded yourself, and walked where you would: but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you, and carry you where you would not. This spoke He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. More than likely by crucifixion. That's quite a statement for Peter to have to handle, wasn't it? That is an incredible statement that he must have thought about often; but when you say, and when he had said, "I" or "We have forsaken all to follow You," sometimes that takes the ultimate sacrifice, sometimes martyrdom. In this particular case, that's what Peter suffered was martyrdom. And when He had spoken this, He said unto him, "Follow Me." He told him to follow Him. So Peter knew that regardless of the manner of death, he would never stop following Jesus Christ. But the thing is, you've got to make sure that you know where Christ is.

You've got to know what He says and what He does. And that is through whatever you want to call it and, a time that you set aside in the day to where you ask God to be a part of your life, to bless the work of your hand. You study His word and ask Him always, "Father in heaven, let me know where Christ is. Let me see where He is working and help me to keep my eyes on Him," and He will. And you say, "How can He do it?" Do you know what, brethren, I don't know how He does a lot of things. I don't know how He keeps the universe from running into each other; and when it does run into each other, why doesn't it blow up? I mean, I don't know how electricity...people don't know what electricity is. We know what it does. And so, it isn't by magic that He shows us where He is. It is because He loves you as an individual and He does not intend to drop you. He will not drop His people; and so, if maybe it's a little bit bleary, maybe it's a little bit difficult to see where He is, ask Him, "Would you please take me by the hand and lead me." We had a couple of songs today that said that, very beautifully done, all of them were. And so, there are times when maybe it's a rather difficult thing to follow Him, but He will never lead where you are incapable of succeeding. He will never do that in your life.

When you came into God's church, did you have any idea of what you were going to be led through? I didn't. I had no idea. I thought when I came into God's church that the end was very, very near and the beginning was very, very close. I thought the Kingdom of God could not be very far away at all, and that was several years ago. And some of you in here when you came into God's church in the 1940's, the 1950's or so, it's likely you thought the same thing. And so, sometimes the trip is extended a little bit, isn't it? But do you know what I always found out about God? That He might...let's put it this way, God might be slow, but He's always on time...the way we think, because how do we think? We want it quickly. We pull into a hamburger joint, we order it, we drive around and are very frustrated when it's not waiting there for us, and especially when the woman drops the change and has to dig it up off the floor and you have to stay there an extra 15 seconds. We live in a time when—I hope you're not doing this—but you can right now, you can look at your blackberry and you can find out who's winning whatever it is that somebody's doing. You can find out whatever is happening somewhere on planet earth and maybe you can even watch a movie if you want to, and you can get it just like that, can you not?

Let's read what He said about John. So He said to Peter, "Follow Me." And He told Peter that when he is old, he's going to be taken against his will.

John 21:20-22 – Then Peter, turning about, seeing the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on His breast at supper, and said, "Lord, which is he that betrays You?" Peter seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Jesus said unto him, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? Follow Me."

He told both of them to follow Him. He took Peter down one path; He took John down another. Don't compare paths. Don't compare paths! What somebody else has been going through, don't compare it with your own. God has a path that He is leading you down, and all paths lead to Him and all paths lead to the final section we're going to look at, which is covered in John, the first chapter, beginning in verse 43. The sacrifice that Peter made was one; the sacrifice that John made was another. John lived until the 90's AD, more than likely. And that was quite a long life. He had to sacrifice, and the last number of years he spent in a prison. That's the sacrifice that he made, and it was one which he followed. That was the path that Jesus Christ had for him. There might be in your life that you look at others and wonder, "It seems as though somebody else has it easier than I." Well, I don't know. Maybe they do, but, then again, maybe you don't know what it is that they have been going through. In John, chapter 1 and verse 43:

John 1:43-51 – The day following Jesus went into Galilee, and found Philip, and said unto him, "Follow Me." So this is the call that God gave to Philip. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, and said unto him, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." So he said, "I have found this is the Messiah. This is the individual that we have been looking for." And Nathanael said unto him, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Because Nazareth was not a kind of town, I guess, that produced a lot of leaders or whatever it might have been. Philip said unto him, "Come and see. You come and see for yourself." Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" That was a nice compliment to make. I have an idea Nathanael appreciated it. Nathanael said unto Him, "When did You know me?" In other words, "How do You know that?" Jesus answered and said unto him, and this is what blew his sandals off, probably, "Before that Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Now, more than likely, Nathanael thought he was by himself, but when Jesus Christ was thinking about telling Nathanael to follow Him, He already had His eyes on him. Nathanael answered and said unto him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel." Because Nathanael was struck by the fact that no one but God Himself, no one but the Messiah, "no one could know these things about me." Jesus answered and said unto him, "Because I said unto you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,' you believe? You shall see greater things than these." And He said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

Where the ultimate "Follow Me" is going to take you is to salvation. It's going to take you to God's kingdom. It's going to take you to being a spirit being in the family of God. You're going to be a member of the God family, a son or a daughter. If you hang in there, if all of us hang in there—and, by the way, some people say, "Well, to whom should we look for leadership?" Jesus Christ and those who follow Jesus Christ. Paul's the one who made the statement, "Follow me as I follow Christ."

Some of you probably don't know it, but there are likely church members, young church members, who look at the members of God's church who've been in the church a long time, and they might be like that grandson of that man I was telling you about at the beginning. They watch where you walk. They watch what you do. They listen to what you say to see if you will be faithful to God. One of the most encouraging things to me, personally, is to realize that individuals for whom I had a great deal of respect chose to be faithful to what they had been taught. They had been called into God's church, they had responded to the "Follow Me" command, and they continued to do so. And from that, you gain strength.

Who is it who might be looking at you and hoping and praying that you will continue to follow God because you're an inspiration to them, and you give them hope that they can make it. And as long as you are there, they know they want to be there because they know the sort of person that you are.

Let's conclude by looking at one of my favorite scriptures, and I hope all of us hear these words, in Matthew, chapter 25, and verse 21. From the parable of the talents, Jesus says to this first man:

Matt. 25:21 – His lord {master} said unto him, "Well done, you good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter you into the joy of your lord {master}. The reason I say that Jesus Christ and God the Father are going to be happier at Jesus' return than you and I, is that statement. The joy of your Lord is what? To have sons and daughters whom He can reward because there are those who responded; and when Jesus Christ said, "Follow Me," they took that banner. They might have stumbled. Occasionally they might have fallen; but Jesus Christ, the leader of this church, as He leads, He watches us every moment of every day. He doesn't take His eyes off of us; and as He leads and we follow, we can know that They anxiously await that moment when They can say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."